Parents say food fights that plagued Dade Middle School’s cafeteria in years past are gone, along with fights and unruly students in the halls. “This school has really changed. It’s wonderful,” said Charlotte Prear, who has a grandchild at Dade.

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Vernon Bryant
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Staff Photographer
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Eleventh-grader Kameron Davis was part of a walkout to protest building conditions at South Oak Cliff High School in Dallas in December. Among the complaints: leaky roofs, unsanitary bathrooms and too-hot or too-cold classrooms.

(Rose Baca - Staff Photographer)

Most teachers and staff say the Dallas Independent School District is headed in the right direction. But at many campuses, thorny problems remain with classroom discipline, the quality of education and a feeling that some school buildings aren’t safe or clean.

That’s based on a recent survey of teachers and staff. The results are a symbolic vote of confidence in Superintendent Michael Hinojosa, with 63 percent of employees saying the district is moving in the right direction. That’s up from 48 percent a year earlier when a different leader, Mike Miles, was in charge.

“There’s still more work to do, but I think people are feeling better about it,” Hinojosa said Friday. “We’re not having as much controversy and people are trying to work together.”

Miles unleashed a slew of changes in his three years with Dallas ISD: an overhaul of failing schools, a merit pay program for teachers, record principal turnover and plans to fix run-down buildings. While people applauded Miles’ stated goal — improve education for the district’s 160,000 students — many found the former Army Ranger’s style abrasive and arrogant.

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The chorus of criticism rose. Miles resigned abruptly last summer. When the school board brought back Hinojosa — a product of Dallas ISD schools and its leader from 2005 to 2011 — many teachers and employees breathed a sigh of relief. The new climate survey reflects that.

“He knows this is a mammoth of a job, but he’s encouraging,” said Sharron Jackson, principal of O.W. Holmes Middle School in east Oak Cliff, where three-fourths of staff said Dallas ISD is headed in the right direction. “He coaches us. We leave feeling lifted up to do our jobs, and we need that.”

Hinojosa needs that good will, because survey results show that while morale is rising, stubborn troubles persist at many of the district’s 227 campuses.

Survey of more than 13,000

Dallas ISD gives the survey to teachers and staff twice a year. More than 13,000 teachers, librarians, custodians and other school staff took the latest survey in December, a practice that started under Miles. They are anonymous and voluntary, and they give insight into a school’s culture and environment — factors that test scores and state academic ratings don’t necessarily capture.

The district typically announces highlights from the surveys but doesn’t share campus-level results with parents. The Dallas Morning News obtained the campus data through state open-records laws.

The survey results are included in principals’ job evaluations. And Hinojosa said the results can be used to target problem areas that need to be addressed.

Across DISD, 79 percent of staff said their campus is clean and safe. At South Oak Cliff High School, only 19 percent agreed — the lowest marks in the district.

Students there walked out of classes in December to protest leaky roofs, filthy bathrooms and classrooms that get unbearably hot or cold. Some parents have demanded that South Oak Cliff get a bigger share of the district’s new $1.6 billion bond program.

Across the district, classroom discipline remains a problem, especially at middle schools. Districtwide, 62 percent of employees agreed with the statement, “Unruly students are not permitted to disrupt the learning environment.”

The average for middle schools was 51 percent. Marsh Preparatory Academy (formerly Marsh Middle School) in northwest Dallas had the district’s lowest score, 13 percent. Marsh’s score was even worse the year before.

For the first time, the survey also asked employees whether they’d recommend their school to parents. At 52 campuses, fewer than half of employees said they would. The district average was 66 percent. Again, middle schools scored notably lower.

Hinojosa said he and other district leaders look at the survey results carefully and try to respond. For instance, he said the district is working on a plan to help South Oak Cliff, and students and staff will work on it, too. As for Marsh, he said, the school had a recent change in leadership, which could be a factor.

In general, he said, a school’s results can drop for any number of reasons. Maybe a principal is demanding more from staff. But at some point, principals have to get teachers and other staff behind them.

No more ‘war zone’

The survey results also show big improvement in struggling schools that got new principals, teachers and resources this school year.

The Accelerating Campus Excellence program, or ACE, targets seven schools that failed to meet state academic standards. The one that needed the most help, arguably, was Dade Middle School in South Dallas.

There was a time last school year when just uttering Dade’s name brought a visible chill to parents and guardians with children there. Fights, unruly kids and a revolving cast of principals were the norm.

Charlotte Prear, who has a grandchild at Dade, said Dade was a “war zone” last school year. No more.

“There are a lot of new teachers. And the principal, she’s a lot different — for the better,” said LaDonna Elzie, who has an eighth-grader at the school. “I think things have happened for the better. I’m actually happy.”

Survey results show that Dade staff members are happy, too. Last year, 11 percent of staff said morale had improved. This time around, 91 percent did. Reports of discipline problems are way down.

One caveat: Just under half of Dade employees filled out the survey.

Why the vast improvement? As an ACE school, Dade got a new principal — its fifth in four years — and almost a whole new teaching staff comprising some of the district’s most successful. The school day runs an extra hour, and parents agree to make sure kids finish their homework and get to class on time.

On a recent day at Dade, kids walked down hallways in orderly fashion. The cafeteria food fights are gone, replaced by students eating and talking to friends.

Dade principal Tracie Washington said her biggest challenge was gaining the community’s trust.

“They had had a lot of disappointment,” she said. “I wanted them to trust me.” So she and her team met with parents and others over the summer to share the plans for Dade — and hear what those families expected from the school.

At another ACE school, Pease Elementary in east Oak Cliff, survey-takers also sounded optimistic. Last school year, 28 percent said their school was headed in the right direction. This year 84 percent did. (As with Dade, fewer than half of staff took the survey. The participation rates for Dade and Pease were about the same as last year’s.)

At Pease, the goal is for students to be greeted each morning by up to five adults. That helps build relationships and puts kids in the mood to learn.

As a whole, the seven ACE schools fared slightly better on the survey than the district on key measures including safety, morale and job satisfaction. If that improved culture leads to academic success, it would mean that at least some of Miles’ initiatives worked after he left.

Another middle school in the ACE program, Edison, hasn’t fared as well, based on the survey results.

Marks for discipline and morale at the West Dallas school, already low a year earlier, dropped even lower this time. Only 19 percent of staff said they’d recommend Edison to parents.

Healey said that Edison has shown progress in other ways. For instance, the number of student suspensions is way down from the prior year. Attendance rates have inched up.

She said schools travel at different rates. “Edison is working hard. All of our schools are,” she said. “We’re certainly proud of their progress, but it’s a long-term journey. It’s not a short fix.”

Even with the successes of the ACE program, the trade-offs can be come at a price. While Dade has enjoyed huge improvements, Washington’s old campus, Seagoville Middle School, is struggling. The percentage of teachers and staff who believe the campus is headed in the right direction fell from 78 percent a year earlier to 36 percent in the latest survey.

Last year, 85 percent of Seagoville staff agreed that “unruly students are not permitted to disrupt the learning environment.” This year, only 34 percent of faculty and staff believe that.

Jackson, the O.W. Holmes principal, agreed that success takes time. She became principal at Holmes this year and made some changes, like offering guitar and piano classes and enrolling more kids in pre-Advanced Placement classes. Next year she wants to start more clubs and groups so students, caught in those roller-coaster years of adolescence, have more chances to feel like they belong.

Jackson said Hinojosa treats principals with respect, and he expects principals to treat teachers and others the same way. “You can’t go wrong with that,” she said.